Kimi Antonelli onboard camera shows Martin Brundle that Lewis Hamilton has an ‘awful’ issue at the Belgian Grand Prix

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Max Verstappen won his first F1 Sprint of the season ahead of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris after fending off attacks by the Australian throughout the race.

However, it was Lewis Hamilton who caught the eye of Sky Sports F1 commentator Martin Brundle after the 40-year-old looked to have continued his struggles with the Ferrari SF-25 following a P18 grid slot from Friday’s Sprint qualifying session.

During the build-up to the Belgian Grand Prix, Hamilton revealed the work he is doing behind the scenes to aid the Ferrari engineers in fixing the issues he has with their current car.

His reasoning for being so hands-on in development with Ferrari is down to the fact that Hamilton doesn’t want to end up like the other world champions who moved to Ferrari and failed to bring success to the iconic racing outfit.

READ MORE: All you need to know about Scuderia Ferrari from team principal to factory

Martin Brundle highlighted how ‘awful’ Lewis Hamilton’s rear traction was during Belgian GP Sprint

During an onboard view of Kimi Antonelli behind Hamilton, Brundle pointed out how poor the Brit’s rear axle looked in the exit of the bus stop chicane, declaring, “The traction coming out of that hairpin looked awful, from Antonelli’s car looking ahead to Lewis’s car.”

Co-commentator David Croft noted that it was the same corner Hamilton locked up into during SQ1 on the previous day, which cemented his exit from the first session of qualifying, saying, “Hamilton locked up yesterday going into that bus stop chicane in qualifying.

“Ferrari told me that there was no mechanical reason as to why that lock-up happened.”

Ferrari brought an upgrade for its rear suspension to the Belgian Grand Prix following a successful test in Mugello. Engineers were ‘cautiously optimistic’ about the upgrade, which looks to have given Hamilton issues under racing conditions.

READ MORE: Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton’s life outside F1 from net worth to family

Naomi Schiff suggests an ‘uncharacteristic’ Lewis Hamilton error in F1 Sprint qualifying

Speaking on the grid before the start of the Sprint, Sky F1 pundit Naomi Schiff noted that Ferrari looked into Hamilton’s lock-up during the latter stages of his final flying lap and were unable to find any ‘technical issues’.

She went on to say that there could have been some sort of issue with the gearbox, causing rogue downshifts to contribute to Hamilton’s undesirable entry into the final corners, but stated that Ferrari had ‘ruled that out as well’.

The lack of explanation from Ferrari meant the mistake had to be laid on the driver, with Schiff finishing with, “You’ve got to say that it is very uncharacteristic [from Hamilton], especially in those dry conditions to have rear locking. It is possible that Lewis didn’t adjust the brake bias.”

The Sprint weekend in Belgium proved to be the wrong time for Ferrari to bring an upgrade to their SF-25 due to the single practice session the teams have on Friday mornings. The Tifosi will be hoping that the engineers can sort something out in time for qualifying for Sunday’s Grand Prix later on Saturday.